The Evils of Coffee
The United Nations Human Development Report 2001 included a section on the controversy over transonic crops, including efforts in some countries to ban all genetically modified foods. In an interesting sidebar, the report noted that many products which are now taken for granted were once also the subjects of much controversy and bans, including, of all things, coffee.
Many of the crops that dominate today’s global market went through long periods of rejection because of perceived risks. For example, coffee, now the world’s second largest traded commodity by value, has a history marked by episodes of vilification and outright bans. In London in 1674 the WOmen’s Petition Against Coffee protested “the grand inconveniences accruing to their sex from the excessive use of the drying and enfeebling liquor”. Opposition to coffee-houses often had a political foundation — King Charles II of England tried to ban them in 1675 because they were hotbeds of revolution.
In 1679, when coffee was perceived to be competing with wine in France, physicians attacked the drink. One physician suggested that coffee dried up brain fluids, leading to exhaustion, impotence and paralysis. In Germany, where coffee was equally controversial, physicians claimed that it caused female sterility and stillbirths. In 1732 Johann Sebastian Bach composed his Kaffee-Kantate partly as an ode to coffee and partly as a protest against the movement to stop women from drinking it. Concerned about the raining effect of green coffee imports on Prussia’s wealth, in 1775 Frederick the Great condemned the increase in coffee consumption as “disgusting” and urged his people to drink beer, like their ancestors.
Source:
Human Development Report 2001. United Nations, 2002.
Tags: Genetically Modified Food